Quote:
Originally Posted by mugen2008
Nyororin,
After submitting my reply I figured out you will do such a reply. Your studying linguistic and words should be used precisely 
OK I should have wrote "the word yama also refers to" instead of "the word yama has another meaning". I'll edit the post.
Then what about what I was saying regarding the forest? Does the word means "forest" or it just refers to "forest" in ancient Japanese ? |
It also referred to "forest" in the past, but mainly because 90% of forests are on mountains.
That meaning lingers in certain modern words, such as 山火事.
I personally wouldn`t use "yama" in that part of the article at all - you`ll still be linking it to the word and not the location as it should be. I would say that in the past, mountains were thought of as ... instead of even bringing up the word. The word "yama" isn`t saying anything more than "mountain" - what you want to convey is that mountains were thought of as such locations.
Anyway, good to know that you weren`t just creatively translating to make Japan look like a mystical magical oriental world of mystery (as is all too common these days.)
ETA; I re-read, and do think that the forest part is also a bit too... overdone.
The dictionary definition isn`t quite saying what you have interpreted it as. The meaning of forest with great resources is more linked to 山の幸 in contrast to 海の幸. The 山 in that phrase refers more to forest than actual "mountain" in reference to resources - but I wouldn`t go as far as to say it was ever "a place of luxuriant vegetation which brings godsend" - more like a location with much natural plant resources.